A--R. Half Way Now. An Detail Of M And N. M Might Look Pretty Much Like G Above It, But I Promise You

A--R. Half way now. An detail of M and N. M might look pretty much like G above it, but I promise you they're different stitches. G is just a plain vertical cross, M is knot stitch/ four-legged knot stitch, where you wrap the thread around the cross before completing the final leg. The big stitch is captive rice stitch, to complement the triple rice stitch of the G above. N is Turkman stitch, and a spiral of my own design in the middle. Let's call it four-legged spiral stitch!

I'm reblogging this here so I don't have to type it out again.

I would like to take this opportunity to assure anyone I owe art to (give away winner - I am an awful person, I am very sorry) that I have not forgotten them nor given up on completing their pieces.

I'm going to make a concerted effort to update more regularly, and be more productive.

Day 76.

This post is dedicated to grrlcookery And darkness-be-my-friend- for asking where I was/if I was okay. I probably wouldn’t be posting this without those precious messages of support, so: with all sincerity, thank you.

It’s been a while, I know. The last however many months have been busy (PhD upgrade - I passed), hard (landlady illegally tried to kick us out of our house, but of course we then had to move anyway - who wants to stay where they’re so obviously not welcome?), and rough (health, money, stress).

I’m really trying to get back on top of things and have some semblance of routine and productivity in my life, but I don’t want to make any promises about being back in full flow for now, because I’ve tried to get back into things before and just crashed myself again.

Here’s hoping I update again tomorrow.

More geometric play. The symmetry isn't perfect, but given the amount of tension points, I'm happy with it. The stitches used here are all really basic - twisted satin, buttonhole, vandyke, lazy daisy, whipped wheel. The complexity comes from how they interact with and tension each other (e.g the vandyke stitch will loop around the cross junction of two button hole stitches, and pull them into a new positions (and then you have to try and get exactly the same tension another 9 times). I don't know if there's an official name for this type of embroidery. I have a lot of stitch dictionaries and collections, and I've never seen anything like this in any of my books. If no one else knows of a pre-existing name for it, I'mma have to invent one. Maybe... Arachne work.

Bristol-based art-academia-community group MakingLearning are producing a series of patchwork poems - each patch contains a word, and is made by a different person. I just did the piecing and the quilting. MakingLearning may be Bristol (uk) based, but for the patchwork poem project we've received patches from lots of different places - not just other places in the UK, but also from other countries in Europe, and other continents. So if you think this is something you'd like to participate in, please don't think distance is a barrier! Get in touch, and we'll post a patch out to you. MakingLearning has a Facebook page, which you should totally check out: https://m.facebook.com/makinglearning

Day 62.

Me, on the radio. Fun times!

Stitched Iliad Interview

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I was in BBC Broadcasting house Bristol this morning, doing a short interview on the Iliad project for BBC Radio Bristol. I’m in the last ten minutes or so if anyone would like to listen.